112 Cossham— Coal-measures at Kingswood. 
series of all the South-western Coal-fields. I hope it will not be 
thought presumption in me thus to challenge the opinion of men so 
much superior to myself in science ; but believing, as I do, that it is 
by the constant development of facts only arrived at by the extension 
of mining operations in different districts, and by scientific knowledge 
being brought to bear upon these facts, that perfect accuracy in our 
geological plans and sections can be attained,—and thinking that it 
it a duty we owe to ourselves, our country, and to science, to give 
to the public the full benefit of any new observations we are enabled 
to make,—I venture to state the ground upon which I have been 
brought to the conclusion that the Millstone-grit is not present at 
Kingswood Hill. 
1. By a reference to the accompanying section, from the River 
Avon to Stapleton, which I have had prepared from accurate 
survey, extending from the Avon, on the south, to the valley that 
divides the Parishes of St. George and Stapleton, on the north, a 
distance of 1 mile and 836 yards, I find there is a continuous and 
almost regular southerly dip, at an angle of from 30° to 40°, although 
this section crosses the supposed anticlinal axis formed by a supposed 
upheaval of the Millstone-grit. As it is impossible for there to be 
an upheaval of the grit from under the Coal-measures without an 
entire displacement of the superincumbent strata, I contend that 
the fact of there being no such displacement, but, on the contrary, 
a continuous dip to the south, as shown by my section, is proof 
positive that no such upheaval has taken place. 
2. I further find that the various seams of coal in the district 
crop to the surface in regular order of succession as we go south 
from the northern boundary of St. George’s Parish. These seams 
are very numerous; there are no less than thirty-four* cropping 
out between the points named, in a distance of 14 miles. They 
are well-known seams throughout the district, and their position in 
relation to each other is pretty well ascertained and understood. I 
find that they always crop out in proper order, showing that, while 
there may be, and doubtless are, many faults in the district, there is 
no great displacement, but a regular arrangement of seams all in 
their proper order and relative position ; and this would, of course, 
be impossible, if the Grit had been forced up from below, as shown 
on the Geological Survey Map. This fact forms, therefore, another 
link in the chain of evidence as to the non-existence of the Mill- 
stone-grit in this locality. 
3. Several branches or tunnels which I have lately driven to the 
south from the Kingswood Collieries have entered the ground 
coloured as ‘ Millstone-grit’ on the maps alluded to; but, instead of 
finding the Grit, we find the coal-beds in regular order; and at 
present we are actually working coal, dipping to the south, in its 
proper position, in the place where the Grit is indicated on the map, 
* Exclusive of seams less than a foot thick. The thirty-four seams make an 
ageregate of 71 ft. 4 inches of coal (see section and list, p. 111). 
